A Dozen Ways To Pitch Your Book

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books for teens in lots of weird genres like, fantasy (Blood of Kings trilogy), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). Find Jill on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website.

You're a writer, so people will always be asking you: “What’s your book about?”

Most of us cannot answer that quickly. We tend to start talking about it, then follow rabbit trails in our plot, and before we realize what happened, we’ve been talking for ten minutes and we really haven’t gotten to the good part yet!

If you’ve done this, don’t worry. We all have done this! Today we're going to go over some ways to avoid doing this.

Why does it matter?

Short and sweet is always best. It's memorable. If you're at a writer's conference and are pitching to an editor or agent, time flies in those 5-15 minute appointments. You have a very short time period to communicate your story idea and need to make every second count. Plus, if you can explain your story in a way that the editor or agent can remember it, they just might remember it all the way back to their office and ask you to send them more.

There is no right way to do this.

I went to a big writers conference in California. My book was complete. I had rewritten it a few times. I was feeling really good. This might be the year I sell my book! I did my homework and knew which agents were interested in a book like mine. And the first night of the conference, I went to a pitch lab in which the instructor encouraged us to memorize our blurb to pitch.

Do not do this. I'm serious.

But I did. And the next day as I wandered across the conference campus, I saw one of the two agents I needed to talk to sitting alone on a bench. I balked. I freaked. But I knew I had to face my fears and do this. I went up to her. Asked if I could give her my pitch. She said sure. And I started rambling out my memorized story blurb. Halfway through my mind went totally blank. I couldn't remember a thing. I just stood there, staring at this agent, saying something like, "Uhhhh... ahhhhh... Well, then he, uhhhhh..."

She stopped me. Said, "Sit down." Patted the bench beside her until I obeyed. Said, "Breathe. We don't bite. Go ahead and start again."

And I did. And that time I got through it. (So embarrassed.) And she was very kind. Asked me a few questions as to genre, length, if the story was complete. Then she gave me her card and asked for the first three chapters.

I danced away, thrilled that I had done the dreaded deed and lived to tell the tale.

But there was still one more agent on my list. I sat at her table at dinner. Somehow ended up right next to her. I was hoping she'd do that thing where she goes around the table and gives everyone a chance to pitch one at a time. She did not. She ate her dinner, quietly. So I ate mine. We made casual comments to one another about the speaker, who gave a bunch of announcements. The time passed. I kept telling myself, "Jill! You've got to pitch! This is your chance!"

But I couldn't. I was still recovering from the first time. I just didn't want to put myself through that again.

Suddenly dinner was over. The agent started gathering up her things. So I gathered up mine. Then she asked me, "What do you write, anyway?"

My chance! She was giving me a chance! I said, "My story is a Christian Agent Cody Banks."

And that's all I said.

She perked up. "Interesting. Do you have sample chapters on you?"

Yes, I did!

All this to say, there is no right way to pitch. Both my methods worked in the end. One was far more stressful for me. The other short and sweet. Which is why I always recommend the latter, to start, anyway. But ultimately, you need to do what works best for you.

The purpose of a pitch is to effectively communicate:

• type of story: genre/subgenre and length

• (for fiction) the story is finished

• story elements: setting, hero, goal, obstacle

• what makes it special or unique

• how it fits with the publisher/agent, if you know that it does

• showcase your platform (for nonfiction) and any marketing hooks you might have

So how do you do that? Read on. Here are 12 Ways to Pitch Your Book.

Fiction Pitches

1) The high concept phrase: A ditsy blonde goes to Harvard Law School. (Legally Blonde) /  A love story between two terminal teenagers. (The Fault in Our Stars by John Green)  /  Die Hard on a bus. (Speed). Read more about high concepts in this post.

2) The logline: A one-sentence description of the story with certain important ingredients. Read more about loglines in this post.

When ____(inciting incident)____ happens to ____( adj. + hero)____ s/he struggles to ____(story goal)____ before ____(what’s at stake obstacle)____ happens.

Ex: When residents of his seaside town are killed, a land lubber sheriff fights to kill a giant shark to keep his family and others from getting eaten. (JAWS by Peter Benchley)

Or this:

A(n) ____(adj. + hero)____ does/experiences ____(inciting incident)____ and must face ____(story goal)____ before ____( what’s at stake obstacle)____ happens.

Ex: An outcast teen finds therapy writing her enemies into her story, but when her novel is published, she must face the consequences of using her pen as her sword. (The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet by Stephanie Morrill.)

Tips to help your logline:

1. Your character description adverb should help show how your character is flawed in the worst way to face the obstacle before him.

2. Choose active verbs that depict conflict: battles, clashes, contends, crusades, duels, feuds, fights, grapples, jousts, opposes, quarrels, scraps, scuffles, spars, struggles, takes on, wages war against, wrestles, etc.

3. The obstacle/antagonist should feel insurmountable. The problem should be BIG.

4. The goal should have high stakes.

5. You don’t have to stick with these formulas or sentence arrangements. As long as you have a HERO, a GOAL, and an OBSTACLE, you're in good shape.

3) The “Who . . . wants what . . . why . . . and why not?” method, which looks like this:

Adjective + Who: a fugitive doctor wrongly convicted of killing his wife 

Wants: to prove his innocence

Why does (s)he want it: to find out who killed his wife

Why can’t (s)he have it: because he is being pursued by a relentless US Marshall

Put it all together: A fugitive doctor wrongly convicted of killing his wife struggles to prove his innocence and find the real killer while being pursued by a relentless US Marshall. (The Fugitive)

4) Ask a question: This can be a “What if … ?” question. Ex: What if Peter Pan grew up?  (Hook)  /  What if there was a farm that grew people?  (Replication) /  What if a boy was raised by wild animals? (The Jungle Book)

This can also be a theme question: Are angels real?  /  Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?

5) ______ meets ______ Compare two unrelated things --or-- Blend the familiar with the strange: Murder and mayhem meets prom  (Carrie) /  Boot camp for children (Ender's Game)  /  A doctor who becomes an assassin (The Way of Kings)  /  Cowboys & Aliens

6) The set up teaser: In a world where women no longer give birth, one women becomes pregnant.  /  After a hit and run killed his wife and children, a man becomes the foster dad to three children removed from the home of an alcoholic.

7) Tagline: This is a form of marketing copy that might go on the book jacket or on a movie poster. Keep in mind, though, not all taglines work as pitches. Here's a good example: The dream is the scene of the crime. (Inception)  And here is an example that doesn't make a good pitch: Don’t go near the water. (JAWS) The former gives the listener an intriguing concept to hook their attention, while the latter is vague and confusing as is.

Nonfiction Pitches

8) The felt need: Share why readers will pay money and spend a weekend reading your book. What existing need in their life does your book answer? What do they want that you can give them? Think of the needs we all share. "I want to save money"  /  "I want to lose weight"  /  "I want to feel closer to God"  /  "I want to worry less"  /  “I want to stop fighting with my spouse.”

9) Nonfiction logline: Title + subtitle. The title should be catchy. The subtitle should explain the title. Ex:

BEYOND THE BLUES: A Workbook to Help Teens Overcome Depression 

THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER: A proven plan for Financial Fitness

PRICELESS: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures

I AM A CHURCH MEMBER: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference

THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES: The Secret to Love that Lasts

AN INVISIBLE THREAD: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny

10) ______ meets ______: It’s The Tipping Point meets The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”  /  It’s How to Win Friends and Influence People meets The Love Dare.  /  Or even one title with a different audience, like “It’s Creativity Inc. for families.”

11) Your platform: This only works if you have an existing platform. “I give X talks each year to Y people.”  /  "I am the creator of Goodreads." *grin*

12) Your story: This only applies if it gives credence to the story you are pitching. If you were on Dr. Kent Brantly’s medical team in Liberia when the ebola outbreak happened and that fact relates to your book, sharing that information can be your pitch. If you’re writing a book about the poor culture vs. the poverty culture and you grew up in either, you can start out with that information, or with a story from your childhood.

The point is to use what will bring about the biggest—and most relevant—wow.

Let's try it out in the comments. Give your target audience, genre, pick one of the above methods, and give us your pitch.